ODU Student-Athletes Post a Record High Grade-Point-Average in 2023-24
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – An outstanding college athletics department doesn’t just hire coaches, fund scholarships and provide the means for its teams to compete on the field.
Successful universities invest in their student-athletes by hiring academic counselors and mental health professionals who work to help them weather the travails of college, succeed in the classroom and leave college prepared to enter the workforce.
Dr. Wood Selig, Old Dominion’s director of athletics, mandated more than a decade ago that ODU ramp up its efforts to help athletes in the classroom, and thus prepare them for productive lives.
And the money has been well spent.
ODU’s academic support staff announced that the University’s 423 student-athletes set a record high grade-point average for the spring semester with a 3.28 and a high for an athletic year with a 3.27 GPA in 2023-24.
ODU’s GPA is based on 4 points for an A, 3 points for a B., etc.
Surprisingly, it was a remarkable improvement on ODU’s football team that pushed ODU athletics to a new high.
In part because some football players do not have stellar high school academic backgrounds, football teams rarely excel academically. But the more than 100 football players at ODU combined for a 3.113 GPA in the spring.
It is the seventh semester of the last eight in which the Monarch football team has scored a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
“I can’t remember a team I’ve coached or been around that did this well academically,” said Ricky Rahne, ODU’s head football coach. “A football team with a 3.0 is definitely very unusual.
“It speaks to the dedication of our academic staff and the hard work they do. It also speaks to the emphasis our coaches put on academics. We always tell our players that how you compete everything, including the classroom, is how you will compete on the field.
“And it also speaks to our players, who work so hard.”
ODU’s stellar performance came in what was a very good 2023-24 athletic season.
Four of ODU’s 16 scholarship teams – women’s soccer, field hockey and men’s and women’s tennis – won conference championships. And the football team went to a bowl game for the second time in three seasons.
Good academics was a common denominator on ODU’s championship teams. Women’s tennis had the highest GPA among ODU teams in 2023-24, women’s soccer was third, field hockey eighth and men’s tennis tenth.
More than half of ODU’s student-athletes – 219 in all – made the Dean’s List, with a GPA of 3.4 or higher, while 52 earned a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Dr. Selig praised Dr. Ron Moses, ODU’s executive senior associate athletic director for internal operations and student-athlete welfare, and his staff.
Moses came to ODU in 2019, and under his leadership, ODU has beefed up its academic support staff, began a psychological counseling program for student-athletes and has introduced programs that help prepare them for life after college.
“Since Dr. Moses came to ODU five years ago, we’ve seen our academic performance steadily improve,” Selig said. “And while that’s fantastic, it only scratches the surface of what we’ve done to help student-athletes cope with the many challenges they face in college and prepare them for life after college.
“Dr. Moses and all the people who work under him, they’re all very dedicated, they are all driven. They care about our student-athletes as people.
“They listen when our student-athletes have problems outside of athletics. They cheer from the sidelines and celebrate with them when they graduate.”
Moses said that when he came to ODU, coaches were often worried about student-athletes being academically eligible.
“A lot of schools worry about eligibility issues, but we’ve moved beyond that,” Moses said. “We worry about how high the GPA is going to be. We’re talking to our coaches and athletes about excelling.
“Once you get out of the mindset of keeping people eligible, you begin to excel.”
ODU has two academic support centers, in the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building and at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex.
The L.R. Hill Complex supports ODU’s football, field hockey and lacrosse teams, which operate out of that building, but also the rowing team, which has its facility on the Elizabeth River at Lakewood Park.
A majority of student-athletes get their academic counseling at the Jim Jarrett Administration Building, which is convenient to most other sports. ODU’s two basketball teams hold their study halls there.
While women’s athletes, as usual, fared better than men, ODU’s men’s sports had their highest yearly GPA ever at 3.16. Female athletes, who outperform male athletes nationally, had a 3.39 for the year.
ODU has a psychological counseling center that operates out of an office in the University Village. Sonja Lund, who has a Ph.D. in Counseling Education and Supervision and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, runs the center, which provides ODU athletes with mental health counseling.
Lund is ODU’s associate athletics director for student-athlete mental health and well-being. She is assisted by Rennel Marshall, a clinical social worker.
In two years, they have provided hundreds of ODU student-athletes with mental health counseling.
Although they don’t offer psychological counseling, ODU’s academic staff do delve into the personal lives of student-athletes.
“You have to look at the students that are coming here almost as family members,” Moses said.
“You’re not necessarily going to blur personal boundaries, but you should give them the advice that you give your son or your daughter or other family members as they navigate through college and through life.”
The academic staff also holds seminars with former professional athletes who talk to student-athletes about life after college.
“Very few college athletes end up in the pros,” Moses said. “And even if they do, they need to be prepared for life after pro ball.
“We try to get that across to every student-athlete.”
Rahne said the boost in academics also helps boost ODU football players seeking a spot on a professional team.
“It’s important that our guys do well and graduate because it sets them up for life,” Rahne said. “But even for the guys who get drafted, if you have a higher GPA, you’re going to get drafted a little higher.
“Pro teams put an emphasis not just on your talent on the field, but how you perform off the field. It shows that you can process information and that you have a good work ethic.”
Moses said ODU’s continued academic improvement has occurred in part because of the University’s coaches. He said that was particularly true for the football program.
“It’s because they’ve recruited the right type of players and when they’ve gotten here, our coaches have reinforced academics,” Moses said. “Not making study hall an option but a requirement, setting the expectation that they go to class and do their work, that’s it’s required.
“Some of our students have worked so hard, they have better grades than they had in high school.
“I’ve worked at Power 5 schools where it’s not like this, where coaches just want to know if their players are eligible, and if they are, that’s good enough.”
Moses said ODU is graduating about 92 percent of its student-athletes, a remarkable figure given the increased role the transfer portal is playing in college athletics.
“We’re reaching out to athletes who have left us and encouraging them to finish their degrees online,” he said.
The NCAA has begun to mandate certain levels of academic and mental health support for student athletes.
“We got out ahead of the NCAA on all of this,” Moses said. “Things are changing in college athletics, with the NIL and transfer portal. But no matter how much things change, our kids are still in college.
"If you're not interested the overall student experience, if you’re not good in that area, you’re not providing your student-athletes with everything they need. We’re all about providing our athletes with the very best experience possible.”